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Nimble texting

Posted April 12, 2011

Can you text ten words a second? No, I can’t either. But according to my niece’s boyfriend it’s entirely possible if you practice often enough.

I’ve been helping him put together his CV so we’ve been texting information back and forth on our mobile phones. And I was stunned by how rapidly he was able to ping back lengthy and lucid replies. He can text a message at almost the same speed as he talks. And believe me, he’s a very fast talker!

I can’t ever see myself being able to do that. I’m still trying to get used to the touch sensitive nature of my android phone (I tend to stab rather than touch). When it comes to texting I’m definitely the tortoise and he’s the hare.

My niece has her own party trick; she can text with her eyes shut – literally! She demonstrated this to me by holding her phone behind her back and typing a word-perfect message to me (well, as perfect as you can be with text language), as I looked on. She learnt this skill in the classroom. Regular practice enabled her to text in secret whilst maintaining eye contact with her teacher. As you do.